9-28-19 - Chengdu - Experiencing Panda Volunteer Day
/Day 104. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.
Today is Ashley’s day again as we sojourn for service learning at the Panda Volunteer Program at the China Conservation Research Base for the Preservation of the Giant Panda.
We arrive and note that this panda base is smaller than Chengdu but there are very few people in site. We check in for the volunteer and are rewarded with a bright green panda base shirt and a hanging id tag identifying us as panda volunteers. We start early with our first team assignment which is to clean the panda’s outdoor enclosure area - it’s about the size of a typical US suburban backyard and our job is to clean the uneaten dried out bamboo and panda poo. The team gets right to work in the Panpan Pavilion. Pandas like their Bamboo fresh and wet, so Chinese farmers hike in the mountains at 3000 meters in order to find the exact variety of bamboo that pandas prefer. It is good and steady work for the locals keeping these pandas very happy. (Pandas spend 14 hours of their day eating up to 40 pounds of bamboo.) And this bamboo is freshly picked for the picky pandas. Sounds like a win-win for all.
As we clean, we start to notice dozens of tourists (mostly Chinese) snapping our photos and videoing us working. We have been told no photos while we are working cleaning the enclosure. Kyle points out, “so we’re not going to get any pictures for our blog but we’ll be on 10,000 Chinese blogs by tomorrow?” After he points this out to our tour guide Sami, she talks to the attendant and we are granted permission for Sammi to take the photos. Meanwhile Leanne is starting to worry about images of our American family sweeping up panda poo going viral in China and beyond. Since the pandas are in their indoor cages while clean the outside, we guess in absence of their beloved pandas, the Chinese tourists will have to settle for a Snapchat or Instagram of us bumbling around outdoors with bamboo and poo.
After cleaning, we crack open bamboo by banging them on the concrete like baseball bats and then deliver fresh cracked yummy bamboo to the outdoor area. The keeper then lets out the 14-year old Panda into her freshly cleaned enclosed. We are thrilled to learn that the panda was born in the Washington, DC zoo in 2005 and spent the first four years growing up in the DC zoo. “Cool, we got assigned the Panda that understands English!” Kyle points out. Kyle starts talking to the panda in English but the panda not surprising does not answer back.
China reserves rights to the world’s pandas and rents them to zoos over the world for a hefty $1 million a year “donation.” According to the official Panda Rental Agreement between said zoo and China, even foreign born pandas belong to China.
With the DC panda now outdoors, we now clean and wash down his inside area. All done! But no; apparently we have another pavilion to clean now (were we promoted for a good job?). The keeper is happy for the labor as he’s kicking back ordering us around today.
Now the highlight! We next actually get to feed the panda his daily carrots and are instructed to place it directly in his mouth because pandas can be aggressive with humans. All of us got a turn and it’s a moment we won’t soon forget (especially because we filmed every awesome second). It’s not easy to forget when a hungry panda is staring you down just 2 feet away.
People have pointed out to us that while we had to pay the panda base to clean, remove bamboo and shovel panda poo, maybe they should have been paying us. Guess that’s why they call it a “volunteer” program. Well the feeding the pandas the carrots and the looks on the kids’ faces was well worth it.
Now we get to tour the rest of the center so we hike up the mountain to see the yearlings and the adolescent pandas. The other Research Base we visited yesterday was much more crowded; this Base is a further distance from Chengdu (which equals better panda time for us!). This gives us plenty of time for observing the animal behaviors from playing, eating, fighting, drinking milk and interacting closely with their trained human keepers.
“I could sit here and watch this all day,” exclaims John. I’m seeing that while we originally came for Ashley’s panda interest apparently the entire crew are closet panda fans too.
For lunch, we eat at the base cafeteria with the other employees a basic meal of potatoes, sweet peppers with pork, taro root and lotus root, my personal favorite on this stop.
After lunch we watch a documentary about the center produced by Oxford Films called Pandas: A Journey Home. On the morning ride to the base, We took bets whether we would be shown the recent IMAX movie on Pandas; fortunately we had not seen this one. We learn all about the impressive efforts, trials and tribulations of the panda program over the last 30 years. Now pandas born at these centers have 95 percent survival rate whereas before it was lucky to have 1 in 3 births survive.
There are approximately 1,800 pandas worldwide making them endangered. Through these research bases, scientists are breeding the pandas, raising them, reorienting them into the wild cautiously. Pandas who are deemed with the best chance of survival are reintroduced back into the wild.
After the film, it is back to our pavilion with our two pandas; we eagerly embrace our earlier duties like pros now. The feeding of course being the highlight.
We are quiet on the bus ride back - several is us trying to fend off colds before we hit the high altitude of over 12,000 feet tomorrow in Lhasa, Tibet. After an early dinner in the hotel, we head to our rooms by 9 pm.
